L'Institute Zoom

Wednesday, 13 February 2019

The Institute's 2016 absurdist detective movie - Epizoda ? - is available to watch online for the first time, streaming on tao films, an art movie platform "which specialises in previously undistributed independent and arthouse cinema from around the world."

Mentored by Béla Tarr, with original music by Dino Santaleza of Croatian band Pridjevi, and starring Vladimir Kajević and Elma Selman, it was the first movie to be directed by the Institute's Graeme Cole while he studied at Mr Tarr's film.factory in Sarajevo, BiH.

Synopsis: A TV detective who's lost the plot drives aimlessly around the city. Negotiating time and space seem achievable next to solving a murder in a factory, the only witness a robot with the ability to get under the skin with its only two programmed lines: “That interests me” and “What are you afraid of?”

The film is accompanied, on tao films, by an interview with the director. Epizoda ? can be 'rented' for €4.99 for 72 hours, or you can take out a month's subscription for just €1 more - which the Institute recommends, since our colleague Aleksandra Niemczyk will present two new films on the site this month, in addition to the copious hard-to-see art movies the service already hosts.

Friday, 16 November 2018

Following Graeme Cole's EMAP/EMARE artist residency of September 2017, an exhibition and outpouring of new materials are due to take place in the city of Bourges, France.

The exhibition celebrates the collaborative (p)reconstruction of yet another episode of Mr Cole's artist film cycle, UNIVERSAL EAR. It contains the movie itself, looping every half-hour; additional video materials and properties from the set; scraps of discarded research; and an artist's book, available to buy from the gallery or online. The limited edition book will be removed from sale at the end of the exhibition.

From November 16th-December 2nd 2018, the exhibition UNIVERSAL EAR: The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum will take place at Le Haïdouc – Antre Peaux, the premises of media arts organisation Bandits-Mages, who hosted the residency. The show is a satellite manifestation of an exhibition of EMAP artists' work, RACCOMMODER LE TISSU DU MONDE (Mending the Fabric of the World), curated by Annick Bureaud, which takes place during this year's Les Rencontres Bandits-Mages.

Wednesday, 14 November 2018

UNIVERSAL EAR: The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum was created by Graeme Cole with Aleksandra Niemczyk, in response to Mr Cole's EMAP/EMARE residency at Bandits-Mages in Bourges. It is available for just 21 days during this year's Rencontres Bandits-Mages, where this UNIVERSAL EAR episode will also appear in movie form as part of an installation until 2nd December.

Here's the science:

UNIVERSAL EAR: The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum by Harley Byrne

229pp, paperback, 12/11-02/12/2018

Reconstructed by Graeme Cole (text) and Aleksandra Niemczyk (illustrations) from the unfound memoirs of Harley Byrne.

Available to buy in a temporally-limited edition during Rencontres Bandits-Mages 2018, 12th November-2nd December.

Harley Byrne’s ongoing mission is to capture and make available for download “all the world’s music, ever.” This novella-length extract from his memoirs tells the full story of Byrne’s adventures in Bourges, France, 2187AD.

While working on his escape from slavery in the reverb mines of 32nd-century Detroit, Byrne is tipped off to the existence of a form of ‘rogue sim electroacoustic pop’ created by a pair of sentient statues in 22nd-century Bourges.

But when he arrives in the historical city, he discovers it to be an ontologically dubious virtual heritage site, overrun with corrupt holograms, cyborg saints, and the occasional native telling fisherman’s tales from deep VR.

What’s more, one of the musicians is missing: the lab-cultured, organic statue of Saint Ursinus, recreated from ancient DNA but barely more than an adolescent.

In order to track him down, Byrne must navigate the ever re-loading maze of the city, outwit the crazed busts of Bourges’ most celebrated sons and daughters, and keep hold of his senses under the effects of the curse of the phantom tympanum.

Available for 21 days only, the first UNIVERSAL EAR book was created as part of an EMAP/EMARE artist residency at Bandits-Mages, Bourges, further supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. The book also contains a photographic project - A New Ontology of Hallucination - and Mr Cole’s studio log from the residency. A film adaptation of the adventure will loop as part of a Curse of the Phantom Tympanum exhibition at Le Haïdouc – Antre Peaux in Bourges from 16th November-2nd December 2018.

* Please note this is a small-scale, non-profit art project. We will endeavour to dispatch your book anywhere in the world within 5 days but please bear with us. Queries before and after purchase can be directed to graeme[at]zoomcitta dot co dot uk.

Tuesday, 28 August 2018

A one-day exhibition of three recent projects from Graeme Cole, all co-produced by the Institute, will take place as part of the second Slow Short Film Festival in Mayfield this Saturday. The videos will be shown on a loop in the Memorial Hall opposite the main venue. It is the first chance to see any of these movies in the UK, and includes a special preview version of the previously unseen, ASMR-themed Murmurs across two synchronized screens. Mr Cole will be in attendance at the festival. Aleskandra Niemczyk's Investigations Of A Dog, which Mr Cole highly recommends, will play in the main program. In fact, the whole day-long festival has been very thoughtfully prepared.

Monday, 6 August 2018

Amateri, or The Lost Innocents will play at The Unseen Festival 2018 in Denver, USA this September. The Institute salutes the festival's programming principles and we'd love to hear back from anyone who attends!

NOTES: "Working with new definitions of experimental film, writing, and dance
during a full 30 days of screenings and other performances at multiple
venues from September 1 to September 30, 2018, Counterpath is excited to
present year 2 of The Unseen Festival, exploring notions of the
resistant, the excluded, and the unacknowledged."

Thursday, 26 April 2018

Amateri, or The Lost Innocents will play at Station To Station International Film Festival in Tallinn, Estonia next week. The festival looks amazing and you are encouraged to attend even if you find the Institute's work to be generally appalling.

NOTES: "Station To Station is a gathering of like-minded directors from around the world who believe in the cinema as a form of art. 40 independent filmmakers from more than 10 different countries are touring around Europe to screen their work at local cinemas (underground films/ narrative/experimental/documentary). It’s a combination of cinephilia, cultural education, travelling, exploration, networking and fun."